On March 11, 2013, India held a paratrooper parachute jump at the Pokaran Range in Ajasthan to prove that it has surpassed China.
In order to "raise their eyebrows and puff up", they also invited big names at home and abroad to come and watch.
However, no one expected that the United States would ruthlessly trap India, and the high-end parachutes imported from the United States at tens of thousands of dollars could not be opened at all......
In the end, this exciting performance turned into a "mass funeral", and after the fact, 34 people were injured in 33 parachuted jumps, so far, India has completely become the laughing stock of other countries......
So what is going on with this "life-saving" performance? Why did the 33-person parachute jump team end up with 34 casualties?
Competitive India
India is a nation that always makes people laugh and cry, their population is the same as China, and they are all developing countries, perhaps seeing China's rapid development and growing power in the world, India is also beginning to move.
Since then, India has felt that its paratroopers are the first in Asia, and the soldiers are the elite of the elite, and this self-confidence is indeed rare, and they have been shouting since 2012, planning to invite celebrities from the military and political circles of various countries to visit and build momentum for their own country.
Many countries have expressed disdain for India's invitation, believing that skydiving is like an acrobatic performance, nothing to see. But there are also countries that are curious, after all, India has never shown paratroopers, whether it is a mule or a horse, just pull it out and slip it out.
As soon as it is said, India first selected sturdy soldiers from the special paratrooper battalion, who will represent the face of India, and after some careful selection, a 50-member parachuting team was finally determined.
In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, they also specially "group buy" a batch of American parachutes, which are very expensive, but the Indian side does not care about these at all, as long as the parachute jump performance goes well, then it is worth spending more money.
By March, the federal military base was ready, and the pilots had to train intensively every day, and considering the cost, they used their own home-made parachutes for training, which were very cheap.
On March 11, a large crowd of onlookers gathered in Ajasthan, a vast plain with the right temperature and wind, and the Indian soldiers were thrilled because they were about to become famous.
It is worth mentioning that India has been preparing for this parachute show for a long time, in addition to parachutes, there are army tanks, fighter drum maneuvers, etc., and the reporters at the scene also seized the opportunity to set up high-definition cameras and start the live broadcast.
Soon, the military display reached its climax, and a team of 34 paratroopers came over neatly, their heads held high, their faces full of red light, and they returned to the light.
Screams came from the audience, and the locals shouted slogans loudly to cheer for the parachuted soldiers, and the atmosphere was very shocking.
Amid the cheers of the crowd, the Indian paratroopers stepped onto the carrier plane, and after a while, the plane came to an altitude of 10,000 meters, and people raised their heads one after another and focused their eyes on the sky.
About 10 minutes or so, with the commander's order, the Indian paratroopers jumped out of the plane one after another, at this time, a strong wind blew at the scene, and the audience present sweated for them.
India's Home Minister Advani once said impassionedly: "The 20th century belongs to the West, and China wants to become the world's leader in the 21st century, but the years to come this century belong to us India." ”
It is interesting to see the ambition of India, and it is interesting that their people naively believe this statement and go hand in hand.
As the paratroopers slowly descended, the narrator at the scene began to speak, and it turned out that this team had a resounding title, called "Red Devils".
The planes dispatched for this performance are high-end models, and tens of millions of parachute bags alone have been spent, and a set of equipment for individual soldiers has been as high as one million.
A designated team member rushes to the front, who should be the captain and directs the other team members to follow in a pre-arranged order in the air.
The paratroopers in the back jumped out of the plane in different positions, some dived, some rolled, and some made a lying position.
At this moment, the Indian paratroopers seemed to have won the world's first level, and their movements were not only smooth, but also looked very chic, and then they formed a formation in the air, lined up in a line, and performed a circumferential rotation trick show.
This scene made the audience can't help but let out an exclamation and burst into thunderous applause, only to see the Indian paratroopers approaching each other, and then separating, their movements are very tacit, like birds.
According to the original plan, the parachuted soldiers had to complete all the performing actions within 2 minutes, and then they separated, opened their parachutes and jumped to the designated area.
However, the actual progress did not go smoothly, due to the strong wind problem on the scene, the original performance time exceeded the plan by more than ten seconds, you must know that the speed of the sky is very fast, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of landing.
At this time, the commander had already sensed that something was wrong, and saw that the altitude was getting lower and lower, but he did not see a soldier open the parachute, and the audience at the scene did not know, they thought that the Indian paratroopers wanted to play big and perform the extreme low-altitude parachute.
Unexpectedly, the low-altitude performance failed, and these Indian paratroopers smashed heavily to the ground, suffering heavy casualties.
What is even more regrettable is that an Indian paratrooper hit an innocent farmer, killing two people, so there were 34 dead and wounded.
In fact, India's special paratroopers developed very early, in 1966, they formed the first special paratrooper regiment, named the "Ninth Special Red Barracks", which had little influence at the beginning, and even many Indians felt very unfamiliar with this unit.
Because at that time, India's air force was not developed, the aircraft were imported, and parachutes could not be produced.
It was not until 1971 that their military industry gradually took off and completed the modernization of military reform, but in any case, India's parachute jump performance was a failure and became a laughing stock all over the world.
Nowadays they rarely talk about the paratrooper performances, probably because they recognize that they are inferior to China in this regard, and now it seems that India still has a long way to go if it wants to truly surpass China.
Text: Uncle Luo Ying
Edited by Uncle Luo Ying
Key Sources:
Overseas Network "Indian Paratroopers Air Force Festival Performance Rehearsal Died Parachute Failed to Open"